Cross-country skiing: Léonie Besson changes direction
A member of the i3 Ski Team for the past three winters, and having switched from biathlon to cross-country skiing at the age of 19, Haut-Alpine skier Léonie Besson has decided to make the switch this spring. This, despite two World Cup selections in recent months – in Les Rousses (Jura) and Cogne (Italy).
“I decided to leave the i3 Ski Team at the end of this season because I wasn’t really in tune with the team’s project, Léonie Besson tells Nordic Magazine. There was a very strong long-distance project and it didn’t fit with mine. Above all, I’d been in the loop for three years and that’s the way it is with everything: after a while, cycles come to an end and I felt I needed a change.”
“I was looking to be part of a group this year, and I’m delighted to be joining the committee”
At that point, two options were open to the cross-country skier who had been living in Savoie for several years: a hypothetical place in the French team or a move to the ranks of the Savoie committee, already occupied by the U19 biathlon team. On April 29, however, the final blow came when she was left out of the national team.
“I’m disappointed mainly because I don’t understand why, and I wish I did. In any case, that’s the way it is, it’s not up to me, but you have to move on and not feel sorry for yourself, she says, fighting back. There will be other opportunities later, and I’ll try to show them what I’m capable of!”
Léonie Besson has decided to return to the Savoie ski committee, as part of the Savoie Nordique team coached by Loïc Guigonnet.
“I really liked the project, she explains. Loïc [Guigonnet] and I have always followed each other from a distance, via biathlon and then cross-country skiing. So I’m really looking forward to working with him. And the team seems cool and close-knit, which is motivating. I was looking to be part of a group this year, and I’m very happy to be joining the committee.”
With Ariane Pignot and Julie Marciniak
When she agreed to join the Savoie committee, Léonie Besson expected to be the only female member, surrounded by other cross-country skiers such as Anaël Lecerf, Antoine Lanne and Hugo Serot.
“It turns out that Julie Marciniak and Ariane Pignot are coming to Savoie. I’m so happy because these girls have so much to teach me, they have qualities and skills that I don’t have, says Léonie Besson. What’s more, we all have the same goals and the same desire to go international! We’re all going to be pulling each other up by the bootstraps. It’s also great fun because Julie Marciniak and I have done everything at the same time, especially the switch from biathlon to cross-country skiing in the same year. She’s the first girlfriend I’ve had in the Nordic world!”
For the 22-year-old from the Haut-Alpes, the objective for the 2025/2026 season will be clear: “The aim is to be selected for the FESA Cup and to achieve podium finishes so as to establish a more permanent place on the World Cup”, she says.
“After that, there are the Olympic Games. It’s good to know that and to have it in mind, but it shouldn’t be the big goal of the season because it’s something very uncertain. I’m going to try to make my mark there, especially as there’s a classic sprint”, concluded an ever ambitious Léonie Besson.
- “It’s more frustrating than disappointing”: the reaction of Léonie Besson, quarter-finalist in the Les Rousses classic sprint on her first World Cup.
- My first World Cup seen from the inside: Léonie Besson reveals her logbook from Les Rousses for Nordic Magazine
- “Cloé Pagnier, Clémence Didierlaurent, Léonie Besson, Mélina Berthet and Justine Gaillard, selected for the World Cup for the first time in Les Rousses, were thrilled to hear: “The culmination of a lot of things”, “It’s going to be crazy”, “It’s just wow!
